Category Archives: Tech Tools

Six cool things for Friday

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Some cool things for Friday:

  1. Did you miss the live webinar yesterday on Using Social Media to Support, Involve and Recruit Volunteers? Then enjoy this recording of the event (slides and audio). And continue the questions and discussion at the TechSoup Online Discussion Forum re: Volunteers and Technology.
  2. Japan crisis showcases social media’s muscle – not the usual social-media-can-do-anything article; it stresses the human expertise that is needed to make it worthwhile in a crisis.
  3. Press Release: Virtual Volunteering – Google Earth’s 3D Geo-Modeling Community Lends a Helping Hand. Great example of online volunteering / virtual volunteering!
  4. News video and article: Upgrade Your Life: Amazing free software – so rare that the mainstream media talks about the excellent, robust tech tools out there that are free and/or open source and will provide people, nonprofits and governments the resources they need for word processing, spread sheets, accounting, database management, presentations and more. Since January 2008, I have used FOSS software for my office software needs (word-processing, slide show/presentation development, spreadsheets, simple databases), as well as for email, for browsing the web, for creating graphics, for altering graphics and photos, for design of various printed publications, to develop material for and manage my web sites, and on and on. I blog about this frequently.
  5. “Nonprofits and grant makers alike should begin to factor the perpetual cost of upkeep into the amount they set to raise before they break ground. Consider it insurance on your purchase.” Really enjoyed this article or blog or whatever about the importance of thinking about facility upkeep in nonprofit budgeting. Save it and include it in your budget proposal for donors who might sniff about funding non-program/administrative costs.
  6. Three years in, the effort known as the Global Network Initiative, a code of conduct intended to protect online free speech and privacy in restrictive countries, has failed to attract any corporate members beyond the original three — Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Who hasn’t signed? Facebook and Twitter, among others. Here’s more in the New York Times.

Accounting software event followup

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TechSoup hosted a terrific online event regarding accounting software on March 30 – the free event allowed users to text a panel of accounting software experts and get answers to some burning questions. More than 100 people attended online!

The discussions continue here – this resource also links to all the various TechSoup resources for accounting software.

If you have burning questions about accounting software for your nonprofit, NGO or other mission-based not-for-profit organization — or any other kind of tech issue for such — ask it over on the TechSoup discussion forum. TechSoup’s community forum is free and fabulous!

This online event was organized entirely online, with staff and volunteers all remote from each other, for the most part. Behind the scenes, it was an excellent example of how to pull off a terrific, low-cost online event, and I was thrilled to be a part of helping to organize it!

Greetings from several thousand miles over the USA, on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Portland. One final note: GO BIG BLUE!! (I’ve been in Kentucky for the last two days – I’m infused with team spirit for Saturday).

oh so much great tech info for nonprofits!

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I’m helping TechSoup Global through May with various tasks beyond my usual role just moderating the Volunteers and Technology branch of its online community. There are a lot of terrific, free resources and events on TechSoup that your nonprofit, NGO, or other community-serving organization should know about:

  • Nonprofit Accounting Solutions Fireside Chat with TechSoup – Wednesday, March 30, 11 a.m. Pacific/ 2 p.m. Eastern: Join TechSoup for a free, live-streamed, interactive interview with nonprofit financial experts to answer your questions and learn more about accounting software and online accounting tools for nonprofits. You will be able to see and hear the presenters, and type in your questions for their answers in real time. Ask about different software features, ask how a particular function works, get suggestions for training and online support, find out about a feature you didn’t know about yet on software you already have – ask any question you wish about accounting software for nonprofits! The event will last approximately 45 minutes. Register here. Disclaimer: there will not actually be a fire.

And there is so much more! Come join me – let’s talk! Ask questions, offer advice, or just lurk and read! And don’t be afraid to post – don’t think, I’m not a techie, I don’t even know the right words to ask my question! You know what challenges you are facing regarding computers, smart phones, the Internet and other tech tools, and you know what you need out of them; ask or comment in you own non-tech language!

Let all your employees and your volunteers know about this upcoming March 30 TechSoup online event and the oTechSoup community!

Civil Society 2.0

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Civil Society 2.0 is a US State Department initiative to assist non-governmental (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) in other countries in using Internet and networking tools to increase the reach and impact of their work. “Through specific regional events, we gather an understanding of the challenges CSOs face and engage the technology community to help solve them appropriately.” In November 2010, a Tech@State: Civil Society event introduced this idea, and its first application, TechCamp, took place in Santiago, Chile.

This initiative is engaged with many other initiatives, including government 2.0 Netzwerk Deutschland, Digitales Chile, Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) and Geeks Without Bounds.

To stay up-to-date on this initiative, join the Tech@State LinkedIn Group as well as the Civil Society 2.0 subgroup. You can also follow this initiative via Twitter, @TechAtState.

Let’s hope someone from the Civil Society 2.0 initiative realizes they are engaged in virtual volunteering and can join all of the many conversations about such, online and onsite! Would love if they contacted me for more information.

Update: this program has been eliminated by the Trump administration

Social media: cutting both ways since the 1990s

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Social media — those avenues to send instant, short, widely-distributed messages and images — cuts both ways:

  • It can be used to organize protesters, but it can also be used to identify protesters and arrest them.
  • It can be used to spread information, but it can also be used to spread MISinformation.
  • You can use it to promote your organization and cause, and others can use it to tear down your organization.

And it’s been used to organize protests since the 1990s – so can we stop now with how “new” it all is?

Back in 2001, while working for UNDP/UNV, I researched how handheld computer technologies were being used, or could be used, in community service / volunteering / advocacy. It wasn’t called “social media” or “micro volunteering” back then, but even without the snazzy jargon, I knew something very exciting was going on, something that was changing the way communities are engaged and mobilized. Among the discoveries in my research was that grassroots advocates had used handheld computer or phone devices to help organize and direct protesters during the 1999 Seattle demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, and that in 2001, protesters in the Philippines used cell-phone text messaging to mobilize demonstrators to help oust President Joseph Estrada. In addition, in China, also in 2001, tens of thousands of followers of the spiritual group Falun Gong continued to exist-despite a harsh crackdown-in a vibrant community fed by the Web and encrypted text messaging. I created a web page just on the subject of using text messaging for advocacy – but I was not the first to do so, as you will see on the page.

I also noted in that page that hand held technology can lead to widespread misinformation as well: “Musician and U.S.A. Green Party activist Jello Biafra noted in an article on Zdnet.Uk: ‘Be careful of the information gossip you get on the Internet, too. For example, late in 1997 I discovered out on the Internet that I was dead.'”

We’re not hearing enough about how effective Web 2.0 tools are in promoting misinformation and negative speech. For instance, micro-blogs, tweets, texts and other technology spread misinformation about and within Haiti, as well as other disaster zones (it will be interesting to see what misinformation gets spread in Japan). During the swine flu panic in the USA a while back, we saw Twitter’s power to misinform, and rumors still affect polio eradication campaigns. So-called “new” media has helped spread misinformation to derail government health initiatives here in the USA rapidly and efficiently.

It’s not just the misinformation that’s a problem in trying to use social media to mobilize community activists and educate the public: in an interview with Radio Free Europe, Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, noted that internal security agencies welcome the use of new- and social-media tools. “The reason why the KGB wants you to join Facebook is because it allows them to learn more about you from afar,” he said. “It allows them to identify certain social graphs and social connections between activists. Many of these relationships are now self-disclosed by activists by joining various groups.” Al Jazeera profiled cases in Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Moroccans where the government or those opposed to any change in government were, indeed, using Facebook accounts to anticipate protests and easily monitor and arrest protesters.

And then there’s social media, like YouTube and blogs, being used by GOTCHA media advocates, as I blogged about yesterday: there could be just one person in your community with a video camera and a dream of humiliating your organization right out of existence, and social media makes that easier than ever to do.

Don’t roll out the comments saying I’m anti-social media. Don’t start pulling your hair and gnashing your teeth, chanting, “Jayne hates Web 2.0!” I love the Interwebs. But it’s long-overdue for a reality check on all these “Twitter revolutions.” Yes, there are lessons to be learned – but we’re not focusing on the right lessons. Back in 2001, the Ruckus Society featured Longwire’s Communications Manual for Activists on its web site, and included tips for using various hand held devices and avenues-two-way radios, CB radios, cell phones, pagers, satellite communications and more in community organizing. Those lessons from a decade ago could teach current activists a lot about using social media tools effectively.

Australian volunteers growing preference for online volunteering

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ProBono Australia reports that a new study finds Australian volunteers have a growing preference for online volunteering, more young people want to get involved, and there is an increasing interest in short term or project based volunteering. The study, commissioned as part of the country’s National Volunteering Strategy Consultation, polled more than 800 volunteering groups and found that traditional forms of volunteering remain popular, but new forms of participation are emerging and needed to be accommodated.

Hmmmm…. this sounds like what myself and some other volunteer management consultants have been saying since, oh, 1996?! These trends have been happing for a while now, in several countries. But we can never have enough reports like this, as so many people – and funders – seem to remain unconvinced.

Among the things I was very happy to see from the report:

  • one of the many things needed to help embrace these emerging trends is addressing the various costs associated with volunteering, both for volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations, which can be significant barriers to participation. Yes, that’s right: volunteering is STILL not free!
  • the affirmation that effective volunteer management helps improve the efficiency of organisations and increases their capacity to comply with and implement risk management strategies needed for successful volunteer engagement.
  • the affirmation that information technology, especially the internet, can be better harnessed by volunteer-involving organisations to make participation in volunteering more accessible.

Organizations that involve volunteers need to accommodate and encourage these emerging trends while continuing to cater for traditional forms of volunteer participation. It’s my long-held contention that embracing these trends will vastly improve the experience for traditional volunteers (people who volunteer long-term). They will also, ultimately, help managers of volunteers be better supporters of volunteers. Everybody wins!

I presented on these trends last year during three weeks of intensive workshops with volunteer managers in Australia (thanks again, Martin Cowling of People First – Total Solutions and Andy Cowling of OzVPM and both of Australia, for all you did to make that happen). Given the responses in this report, I suspect some of the workshop attendees, as well as those who were a part of the Australasian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management that year, were contributors. That’s not me trying to take credit for what’s in the report; that’s me lauding Australian volunteer managers for being so aware of what’s happening in their sector.

ProBono Australia provides an excellent summary of the report. The report will inform the National Volunteering Strategy, which the Government plans to release later in 2011. The strategy is expected to outline the Government’s vision for volunteering over the next 10 years and will provide a framework which encourages volunteering. You can download the full report as well.

Tech Help for Nonprofits/NGOs *anytime*

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I frequently get asked — or see online — these two questions:

From nonprofits/NGOs: where do I get help with our computers and the Internet? I have all these questions about how to choose donor management software, or how to use YouTube, or how to write a proposal for the technology my organization needs. I don’t even know where to begin!

From individuals: I want to help nonprofits with tech issues. I want to answer questions about how to use social media, how to write a technology strategy, how to use Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro, how to choose Virus Software, etc. I’ll do it online, I’ll do it onsite. Where do I go?

My answer to both these groups: the online community forum at TechSoup Global. It’s a great place for nonprofits to get tech-related questions answered, and it’s a fantastic place for tech savvy folks to answer those questions. The TechSoup online community forum branches include:

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Networks
  • Viruses & Security
  • Web Building
  • Technology Planning
  • Accessible Technology and Public Computing
  • Volunteers and technology
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Digital Storytelling
  • Virtual Community
  • and more!

Here’s an example of a question on TechSoup that’s waiting for an answer right now

Hello all – my NPO would like to set up a webcam with a live feed inside an owl’s nesting box and have it available on our web site. I am the “accidental techie” in our organization so I’m trying to find out as much as I can, as quickly as I can.

We have a very limited budget with which to work with and will probably rely mostly on donated or borrowed equipment, if possible.  The only equipment we have so far is the nesting box with the mother owl preparing to lay eggs.

Although our location isn’t particularly remote (Grizzly Island, Suisun), cellular signals are practically non-existent. We do have an internet connected computer on site and I’m pretty sure its DSL. The location of the owl box is in a tractor shed which has a locked room available for us to place a laptop.

What kind of equipment are we going to need to set this up? What are our options, considering the little bit of info I’ve given? I realize these are pretty general questions, but it’s just a jumping off point and any feedback I get will help me to begin asking more specific, targeted questions.  

Much love and gratitude in advance to any who choose to tackle this very large question.

Answer it here!

Even if you don’t know where to post your question, don’t worry: if you don’t post in the right forum, the oh-so-helpful volunteer moderators at TechSoup will get your post to the right branch right away.

The TechSoup community forum has been engaged in microvolunteering long before the term was being used!

I’ve been associated with TechSoup since the early 1990s, when it was called CompuMentor and didn’t even have a web site! Back then, it was focused on recruiting and placing volunteers in nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to help with tech issues. The TechSoup online forum is an evolution of that service – join in! You don’t have to ask, or answer, right away: just lurk for a while!

And don’t miss TechSoup’s many free online events, to help build the capacities of volunteers and paid staff at nonprofit organizations to use technology to support its work. Subscribe to the TechSoup email newsletter By The Cup to know when those free online events are happening.

Also see:

    • Finding a Computer/Network Consultant
      What mission-based organizations can do to recruit the “right” consultant for tech related issues, one that will not make them feel out-of-the-loop or out-of-control when it comes to tech-related discussions.

Girls Are More Likely to Support Charities Using Social Media

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A survey commissioned by World Vision, a Christian international relief and development group, says that girls in the USA are more likely than boys in the USA to “friend”, “like” or “follow” causes they believe in on social media (41 percent vs. 27 percent) and that girls are more likely than boys to say they’ve become more aware of the needs of others as a result of their use of social media (51 percent vs. 38 percent). The study also found high overall levels of social media use: Four out of five USA teenagers surveyed said they used social networks like Facebook.

The study was conducted online in January by Harris Interactive among more than 500 youth ages 13 to 17 years old.

According to the survey, nearly 1 in 4 teens (23%) say they volunteer during their free time. How easy would it be to make that percentage even greater? Consider the answers to these questions:

How strongly do you agree or disagree
with each of the following statements?		 Summary of Strongly/ Somewhat Agree (Net)
It is more important than ever to help others who are less fortunate. 90%
I wish I could do more to help those in need. 88%
It is important to support charitable causes or organizations symbolically even if you can’t do so financially. 86%
I have become more aware of the needs of others as a result of the current economic climate. 79%
My family has been negatively affected by the current economic climate. 73%
The benefits of using social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) outweigh the risks. 66%
I have become more aware of the needs of others as a result of my use of social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). 44%

When you see just how strongly these young people in this study felt about charity, social responsibility and volunteering – something you can see echoed per the questions from teens on YahooAnswers Community Service – you have to wonder why many nonprofits are doing such a lousy job of reaching out to teens and pre-teens as volunteers and participants! If your organization isn’t getting youth involvement at the numbers you want, or should be, it’s time to look at how your organization is using social media.

World Vision sponsored the study to coincide with its annual 30 Hour Famine, scheduled for February 25-26, in which teenagers fast for 30 hours to raise money for global poverty. The event, which raised $10.4-million dollars last year, has set a goal of $11-million for 2011. World Vision expects 200,000 participants.

Advice for nonprofits, NGOs, charities, civil society, government agencies and others looking to use the Internet to mobilize young people as volunteers and program participants:

Nonprofit Organizations and Online Social Networking: Advice and Commentary

Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action

What nonprofit & government agencies “get” FaceBook?

Tech news that’s gotten my attention

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Today’s blog: pointing you to some interesting posts that have come my way regarding technology use in humanitarian efforts, at NGOs and nonprofits, and by government agencies trying to connect more effectively with the public. I promise that each item is very much worth your time to read:

    • Look at the philosophy, not the technology, yet another terrific blog entry by Paul Currion: “…don’t be distracted by the shiny packaging, but instead look carefully at the philosophical underpinnings of the product and (especially) the provider of the technology. If the match isn’t good with your needs at the outset, it will never meet those needs.”
    • Humanitarian Open Source, the focus of the December 2010 Open Source Business Resource (OSBR): The humanitarian open source movement seeks to create “IT infrastructure to support a wide array of goals for the public good, such as providing effective healthcare or microloans to the poorest of the poor… In this issue of the OSBR, “the authors from several open source software and hardware projects explore not only the global need for humanitarian open source projects, but also the business cases for humanitarian-focused ICT.”
    • If you are involved with an NGO or nonprofit, and would like to find out more about how Ubuntu could benefit your organization, this is the place to come. And on a related note: I was thrilled to get a document from a colleague in Afghanistan yesterday that was done in OpenOffice; further inquiry revealed he was now using Ubuntu as his operating system. Hurrah! I, too, use Open Source tools for most of my software needs.
    • Addendum: Tor software has been downloaded in huge numbers by Tunisians and Egyptians recently. It enables online anonymity, hiding information about users’ locations and other factors which might identify them. Use of this system makes it more difficult to trace internet traffic to the user, including visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms. The software is open-source and the network is free of charge to use. The name Tor originated as an acronym of The Onion Routing project.

 

Rapid Development Plan to get you using networking tech with your communities

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Too many nonprofits, NGOs, government community programs, etc. are still not using the Internet beyond email and looking up a phone number on a web site. Many managers of volunteers in particular still avoid the use of networking tech. I wish this wasn’t true, but I even hear the foot-dragging from seasoned volunteer management consultants: I really need to start using this stuff, I guess…

If you or your organization still hasn’t fully embraced the Internet to support and involve the community, including your volunteers, here is what volunteers — and perhaps other potential supporters, such as donors, and maybe even city officials, the press, etc. — may be thinking about your organization:

  • This organization must not be very well-run or be very well-organized.
  • This organization may be trying to hide something.
  • This organization doesn’t have anything to offer teens, 20-somethings, young professionals, etc.
  • The important decisions that happen at this organization happen behind closed doors with just the senior staff and the board. The community, including volunteers and clients, aren’t involved in decision-making.
  • This organization is stuck in the past. I want to be involved in an organization that’s very much aware of the present and is ready for the future.

I’ve been beating the use-the-Internet-in-your-work drum since 1994, and find myself frustrated that, 17 years later, there are still so many nonprofit staff people, including coordinator of volunteers, who won’t really use the Internet — and even have other staff members and volunteers reading and responding to their email!

It’s by no means the entire nonprofit sector that is holding out: I think most nonprofits DO get it. There are thousands and thousands of nonprofit organizations and others doing fantastic work, even pioneering work, in using a range of online tools, including so-called online social networking, to engage a variety of people. These organizations are seen by volunteers as responsive, as really listening and acknowledging that they have heard what volunteers are saying. And volunteers love to talk about their experience with such organizations to their friends, family and colleagues — online and face-to-face.

How can you get to get on the other side of the digital divide, if you aren’t already? How can you get your entire organization there, especially those hardcore holdouts? 

I’ve developed a “Rapid Development Plan” to get any org – & the coordinator of volunteers – using the most essential online tools ASAP. It’s the featured training for Jan. on e-volunteerism. It is a day-by-day plan, doling out tiny learning activities every day that will rapidly build up anyone’s skills regarding getting the most out of networking tech. It’s my last effort to reach the tech holdouts!

Subscribe to e-volunteerism to access the training ($45), or you can pay for 48-hour access ($10).

Also see these free resources: